Sims's arrangement is still very distinctive, he deployed the weakest Nevada in the third position, so that if necessary, he can get the fire support of the Ioda, and the Pennsylvania is at the end of the team, although its combat effectiveness is a little worse than the New Mexico class, but the Americans think that it is okay to support for a while, as long as the Nevada is okay, the battle line will not collapse.

In fact, Hipper's combat power is indeed a bit too much, and the combat effectiveness of the four American Iron Turtles can indeed be called half a pound compared with the three Bismarck-class battleships, while in the auxiliary warship ring, the Hipper's fleet is much worse. Just ten minutes into the battle, the Bismarck battleship, which was fired at by concentrated fire, was hit many times by dense 14-inch shells, although it could not penetrate the core compartment due to distance problems, but the continuous hits of the main gun shells still made the king of the German navy feel quite stressed.

The slender Atlantic bow was hit by at least three shells, one of which destroyed the anchor compartment, the other made a hole in the bow armor belt, and the third hit the sailor's cabin in the forecastle, and the fire caused by the violent explosion directly ignited the various cotton fabrics in the cabin, and billowing smoke and flames began to spread in the cabin. And more shells hit the Bismarck's amidships, and in less than fifteen minutes, Bismarck's No. 3 turret was actually hit three times directly! The first shot hit the turret, the heavy armor plate made the shell useless, and the second hit the upper level of the turret, leaving a deep bullet mark on the turret, but the violent shock and explosion destroyed the optical instruments attached to the turret, and the third shell completely ended the turret. The shells fired from the connection between the turret and the turret completely destroyed the rotating mechanism, and the shock from the explosion caused problems with the ammo delivery channels of the real turret.

After losing a fifth of their firepower, the two New Mexico-class battleships grew braver. Although the heavy armor of the Bismarck ensured the safety of the core compartment, the fire on the surface of the ship had lost control under the continuous attack of the other side, and a large number of damage management team members were swept down by flying shrapnel, and even a 14-inch shell killed nearly 20 officers and soldiers of the entire detachment! AT THAT TIME, THE TEAM MEMBERS TRIED TO EXTINGUISH THE FIRE IN A SECONDARY GUN POSITION, BUT THEN THE SHELL ACCURATELY SMASHED INTO A NEARBY GUN POSITION, AND WHILE REDUCING THE 150MM NAVAL GUN TO PARTS, COUNTLESS SHRAPNEL TORE THROUGH THE COMPARTMENT BETWEEN THE SECONDARY GUNS AND BLEW THE GERMAN OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS WHO WERE FIGHTING THE FIRE NEXT DOOR INTO A PILE OF PULP. The casualty rate of the entire battleship continued to rise.

Bismarck's self-sacrifice was exchanged for opportunities for the Bavaria and Baden. These two battleships had the advantage in the battle, especially the battleship Bavaria, which exchanged fire with the Nevada, and the 10 15-inch guns easily suppressed the opponent's 10 15-inch guns. In the time of the battle just now, the Bavaria hit the opponent at least 7 times! In addition to the two shells that were deflected off by the heavy main armor belt, another shell destroyed the two main gun barrels of turret No. 3, and the fourth shell landed between the two gun galleries. Destroy both secondary guns. The remaining three shells each made 4 holes in the first place. One of the shells tore a large hole with an area of almost 7 square meters! In a matter of minutes, nearly 800 tons of seawater poured into the aft compartment! If nothing else, the Germans thought that the first trophy captured in this engagement might have been this American battleship armed with 10 14-inch guns!

But history often doesn't go the way people set it to. Just when Bavaria was easily beating Nevada, a shot in the water put Pennsylvania in a difficult situation! The underwater projectile fired from the Baden entered the water at a distance of 20 meters from the enemy ship, and successfully penetrated the underwater protection system at the stern, and finally collided with the propeller shaft that was spinning at high speed! This shell, which weighed more than 800 kilograms, directly broke the transmission shaft, which rotated hundreds of revolutions per minute, into two, and under the action of inertia, this transmission shaft was thrown on the next next door. And successfully smashed it! Then several chambers were destroyed unabated, and countless debris and flames poured towards the chamber where the other propeller shaft was placed. The violent vibration caused by the explosion also caused some damage to the wheelhouse. The Pennsylvania's maneuverability and speed are greatly reduced!

Although the Pennsylvania's firepower remained fairly intact, it was a pity that the blow made it almost ineffective, and the ships that could not follow the formation were of no use, unless the remaining American ships were willing to slow down and wait for the damaged ship. Sims looked at the crooked Pennsylvania that had already left, his face became gloomy, after losing this battleship, he was a proper disadvantage if he was three to three! At the same time, when the Germans on the opposite side saw the out-of-control Pennsylvania, they couldn't help but be shocked, and Hipper immediately redistributed his firepower into a state of catch and kill. In desperation, Sims could only order 6 destroyers to cover the evacuation of the damaged giant ship in the direction of France. At the same time, 1 armored cruiser was rowed out to tow the battleship, which was almost out of power.

The Bismarck had been badly wounded in the engagement, and in less than an hour of engagement, the German flagship had lost 40% of its firepower, but his opponent had paid the price, and one of the New Mexico's 3-pack main gun turret was jammed. And the Ioda in the back was also destroyed by 2 guns. After losing one of the capital ships, the capital ships of the U.S. fleet were at a disadvantage, but at this time Sims obviously could not retreat, and if he left, Majifen would face a double attack from Hipper and Tycho. At this time, the American fleet was under full fire, and under the cover of the battleships, all the light cruisers and mine-striking ships rushed out. The fiercest charge was launched at the German fleet in the distance. And in the face of the menacing American warship, Hipper chose to avoid it with reason.

"The U.S. fleet is like an angry wolf pack, and they rush at us without hesitation. These opponents, who were approaching at high speed while releasing smoke, posed an even greater threat than the 14-inch guns of the Americans. We had only 4 light cruisers, and in the face of the opposing patrol, just one was enough to tear through our defenses. Afterwards, Hipper commented on the situation at that time, Sims had only 2 armored cruisers, one of which was used to tow the Pennsylvania away from the battlefield, and the other was used as the spearhead of the lightning strike fleet to stab the German fleet, in the face of this displacement of up to 15,000 tons, equipped with 10-inch guns and a large number of 6-inch guns, the German light cruiser was obviously not an opponent, and the dense firepower easily smashed a German light cruiser that could not dodge into pieces, Two 10-inch shells hit the power compartment and halted it, while the other 10-inch shell hit the ammunition magazine under the bow main gun, and the detonated ammunition directly broke the light cruiser with a displacement of more than 4,000 tons in two. After 1 minute, it disappeared into the sea.

The Bismarck, which had been beaten violently at the beginning, immediately became the focus of the opponent's torpedo boats, and the main guns protected by heavy armor lost 4 guns, and the secondary guns without sufficient protection could save a few pieces, and the Bismarck, which had only 3 150MM secondary guns and a number of 88MM anti-lightning guns on the side chord, struggled to resist the enemy's lightning strikes. "Give up the attack on the New Mexico, let's get rid of these gadgets first!" In desperation, Hipper could only use the main cannon to fight flies. Huge columns of water rose above the sea. The fist-sized shrapnel spread out in all directions with the center of the explosion point, sweeping towards the unprotected destroyer, and many American officers and men were directly beaten into a pile of flesh by this deadly bullet rain, and these shrapnel penetrated the fragile shell of the destroyer without hindrance and then rammed into the hull of the ship wantonly.

The Bavaria, which was in second place, also had some fire support for the flagship. Under the suppression of crossfire, the first wave of the US Navy was disintegrated by a dense rain of bullets, and 4 destroyers were blown to pieces. The other two destroyers were attacked by near-misses, and the fragments from the 15-inch high-explosive bomb that exploded less than 10 meters shredded the power compartments of the two destroyers, and now they can only float slowly on the water.

The first wave of attacks by American mine-striking ships was in vain. HOWEVER, JUST AS HIPPEL DISPERSED HIS FIRE, THE AMERICANS ALSO MANAGED TO FIRE A WATER BULLET, WHICH ENTERED THE HULL FROM THE BOW OF THE BISMARCK, AND AFTER TEARING THROUGH THREE LAYERS OF HIGHLY ELASTIC STEEL AND THE REARMOST 45MM LAYER OF ARMOR, IT SUCCESSFULLY DRILLED INTO THE BOILER ROOM AND BLEW BOTH BOILERS TO PIECES. And the hole that was opened allowed the battleship to enter at least 1000 tons of water! Hipper felt only a slight jolt in the hull of the ship, and then leaned slightly to the side.

The American lightning strike formation that discovered the Bismarck's abnormal appearance gave full play to the combat policy of taking advantage of your illness to kill you, the second wave of destroyers quickly attacked, 8 destroyers were divided into two lightning strike formations on the sea surface and rushed up, and the Bismarck, which had greatly reduced its firepower, dodged the other party's lightning strike as much as possible under the cover of the Bavaria, and something unexpected happened, the Bismarck dodged at least 6 torpedo attacks, but the Bavaria, which was lined up behind, was unfortunately hit by a shot, The torpedo exploded less than 5 meters away from the Bavaria, and the energy generated by hundreds of kilograms of explosives squeezed the fragile hull of the Bavaria with a large amount of seawater, and with the impact of seawater and shrapnel, a large hole of at least 6 square meters was cut in the front of the Bavaria's hull, and 900 tons of seawater poured into it in just a few minutes!

Although the second lightning strike was eventually dispersed, the Americans lost 5 more destroyers, but two German capital ships were also damaged. The situation of the Bismarck was particularly bad, the superstructure was damaged, and nearly half of the firepower was lost. The power compartment was also damaged, and at the same time, the battleship was tilted to a certain extent because of the flooding.

Thank you for the evaluation votes of the book friend He Miaomiao~~~. (To be continued......)